


Do my eyes deceive me?

by The_Other_Timeless_Child



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:54:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29853546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Other_Timeless_Child/pseuds/The_Other_Timeless_Child
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

Marketplace, Mid day, Sunny

The Doctor swings open the doors and says “Voila! The beaches of…..”. Sighs heavily and looks back in towards the TARDIS pillars and saying “Why can’t you just take me where I want to go?”

Yaz peeks out the doors, “So where are we, and are we going to stay and explore anyway?”

“I’ve been here before, this place has amazing markets, lots of rare and exotic goods if you’re willing to make a trade.” 

“And you don’t even need to taste the soil.” Yaz teases. “So, where are we then?”

“Tiaanamat” Glancing towards the direction of the temple of Rings of Akhaten and nods. “We’re perfectly safe, probably, I think.“

“So reassuring, come on let’s go see whats so exotic about goods, maybe I can find something for my sister” Yaz grabs the Doctors coat sleeve and pulls her along toward the market.

* * *

The Doctor dutifully following along behind Yaz, occasionally helping out on the trade negotiation, falls behind as she hears a familiar voice, and realize there’s not one but two, upon spotting both women she recognizes, promptly ducks behind a market display.

“...I have to say darling I am quite impressed, you father would be proud.”

“I’ve looked, but I’m not going to go out of my way to find him.”

“Oh I know that, Sweetheart, and in case you didn’t know, though I’m not your mother, I’m proud of you as well, You handled the T’sprat, very well.

“Of course you do, spoilers after all…it wouldn’t have been the same without your help.” 

The pair continue browsing for market, The Doctor “Sneekly” following along. Yaz returns and spots the Doctor's hiding place.

“Have you considered looking for your mother?”

“Really River, My mother?”

“Yes Jenny, your mother, just something to consider, it might go better than when you met your father.”

“I’ll think about it, mooom.”

The Doctor gasps in shock, as Yaz comes up and whisper yells “What are you doing?”

River looks back towards their direction, mouths ‘Hello Sweetie’, winks, and blows the Doctor a kiss.

Turning back and looping arms with Jenny, “Come along sweetheart, I did promise you a tour of some my favorite places in the universe and your father’s... or mother’s ship should be just right around the corner.”

* * *

“Who was that? Do you know that woman? Do you think she’s up to something? Is that why we're here, should we follow her?

“River and Jenny, Yes, Oh, Most definitely, Yes, probably, the Old Girl misses her too, I’m not sure actually, I think it’s too soon.”

“You think they will spot us following them?”

“What? No…No River will set the TARDIS to return when they’re done, if we are meant to follow them the last destination won’t be erased.” Standing up straightening her jacket, followed by an abrupt subject change. “So shopping did you find something for Sonya?” When the Doctor strikes off in the opposite direction.

“Hey, now wait, We let you get away with it before, but no more, so don’t change the subject like that again. That woman winked at you, clearly knows you because you’re currently fine with her stealing the TARDIS? And how does she know how to fly it anyway?”

“She’s not stealing it, she's borrowing it, I am the one that stole in the first place. Look Yaz, my life is complicated, I mean you’ve met Jack, he’s a fixed point in time, for all practical purposes he is immortal, eternity can be lonely and he has to live that way because...he was my friend.”

“We talked...He doesn’t seem.. he’s living in the moment, and seems to be enjoying it”.”

“He and River are both like that, and they try to hide the damage, and I let them get away with it, let them think I didn’t know, and sometimes they let me get away with it too.”

“Doctor….?” Yaz sighs.

“Please Yaz, can we talk about this later when we’re back on the TARDIS? For now can we just have a nice day out shopping?” Spins and cheerily announces “Oooh! They have biscuits!” And strides off towards a vendor.

Yaz mutters, “Right hide the damage,“ and follows along after the Doctor.


	2. It’s later....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say the Doctor will explain to Yaz later,  
> Option one, no coordinates left behind.

Back on the TARDIS the Doctor checks the last coordinates but there are none, insteads finds a note from River, “Sorry, sweetie she’s not ready to see Pretty Boy again, but we both knew that, however she is warming up to the idea of meeting a regenerated you, xx.”

“What is it? Did she leave the coordinates?

The Doctor looks down at the note….she did say they could talk it about later, sighs and hands over the note.

Yaz takes the note, “Who’s Pretty Boy?”

“Me, it’s what she called me when I first met her, River...I thought she only knew two of my faces but actually she had a folio with 12 of my faces… but she met Scottish me that face wasn’t in the folio and she didn’t know me, and I was trying to get her to guess that I was me, I thought she got it and then she said I reminded her of her second wife… I’m not sure who her second wife is, I mean we both married Cleopatra, so do you think that still counts as her first wife or will it cancel out?”

“Doctor do you think she might have been teasing Scottish you about knowing you as you are now and pretending to not know him...you?”

“What, No, No, of course she didn’t know, she sent Nardole to find a surgeon and he came back with me, and she had Ramon out with the folio looking for my other faces. How she expected a physician to go along with what she was planning in the first place I don’t know, then she stole the TARDIS right in front of me!! Said she did it all the time and I never noticed.”

“Did you…notice before then and today that is?”

“Well, No…..” The Doctor walked around the console pushing buttons negotiating with the tardis, “Come on I just want to confirm what I already think“ Galifreyian text displays on the screen. “Ha!”

Yaz leaning against the column asked, “What did you discover? Say River had reacted as if she did know who you were, would you have behaved differently?”

Still peering at the screen. “Well TARDIS isn’t telling me as much as I’d hoped for, Just that River did borrow the TARDIS many times in my past, and just borrowed Her now, and is probably going to borrow Her again in my future, and as for had she known I was me, No I don’t think so..maybe I wouldn't have gone along like I did with her heist...well maybe... probably...at least not right away, I mean she did explain some, I was curious about how she acted when I wasn’t there, but I probably would have wanted to know more about the plan and tried to talk her out of what she was doing.”

“What would’ve happened if you had talked her out of it and hadn’t gone along?”

The Doctor pacing around the tardis explains, “Then….. well we might not have been on the Harmony and Redemption when it crashed and we might not have had a liberated diamond for me to give a salvage worker to build a restaurant at the crash site on Darillium, that I could then take River to for our last night. So had that not happened it would probably have caused a paradox and broken time again because the first time I saw River she told me a spoiler that the last time she saw me was at our night on Darillium.”

“Wow, You had a Restaurant build for River!! Was she in the habit of telling you spoilers, isn’t possible she knew it was you? After all she seemed to know you today, and left you this note.” Which the Doctor snatches and folds into a pocket.

“No...Maybe….Over the years I kept canceling on her for our trip to Darilluim, and River said sometimes she looked us up… I did imply the next time she called me I wouldn’t be able to fix it.” The Doctor treading her hands through her hair says ”That’s practically a spoiler right there...how did I not notice and before we crashed, people on the ship wanted to use her to get to me, she explain to them how I wouldn’t be there, really it was the perfect opening to say “Hello Sweetie”...then when we were crashing she said she picked the Harmony and Redemption out of the book of famous exploding restaurants.”

“So then Doctor if she read about it, she probably knew where the ship was going to crash, and basically set everything in motion so you wouldn’t be able to cancel again.”

“She…. She set us up and then had 24 years to figure out why I couldn’t fix the next time we met. Oh..oh. and I gave her my sonic, but she could make a sonic, she had a sonic trowel ...with all those years we had plenty of time for her to figure out what was in the one I gave her, she said she knew from the stories that the last night we were together was on Darillium...I thought our story was back to front, I mean sometimes it wasn’t, usually it was. Your saying she knew it had to end and that since I don’t like endings, she acted like she didn’t know me, so I couldn’t be mad at her for taking us to Darillium. I surprised her though, I don't think she expected me to stay the night for 24 years though.”

“Are you mad now you are suspecting she knew you all along? And who was the woman she was with today?”

“No...and I’m not saying I’m convinced but if she knew, it had to happen that way, I just don’t know where she is in her timeline now. Also I have no idea how she knows Jenny or how Jenny could even be there, the last time I saw Jenny....she was dead.”

“So...River showed up today to let you know that the people you think are dead aren’t actually dead?”

“No River is definitely dead, it’s how I first met her, she died saving 4022 people.”

“And Jenny, was she definitely dead as well?”

“Yes... yes, they had both died. You don’t understand, River gave up her remaining regenerations to save my life when she poisoned me. And Jenny was made from me by a machine, it was nothing like the looms on Gallifrey, there’s no reason to think she would’ve been able to regenerate and it didn’t happen….not...while I was still on the planet.” 

“Have you ever been back to the planet to check, and who told you River had no remaining regenerations, did you check yourself?

The Doctor sitting heavily on a step, sighs. “No, Yaz. And no I did not go back to either place, in fact I can’t go back to the library after that day, I made a deal, The Library is protected by the Vashta Nerada.”


End file.
